Challenge 2: Avoidance strategies
Avoidance techniques
Some of your children are masters of the art of avoidance. You may not have been aware until now but they are like a ninja, slinking through the shadows doing a total sum of nothing, right under your nose.
At school, some children find a million ways to avoid work: going to the toilet is a classic, not finding a pencil or other equipment is also a favourite, and wanting - no, needing - to tell you something is much loved by children everywhere.
My 4-year old daughter has a hefty toolkit of avoidance strategies for not going to bed. An 8-year old will have many more years of experience and know-how to get out of any situation. Put them in a room with a parent who believes they're perfect and wonderful and you've got no chance of beating the master.
These avoidance behaviours generally fulfil the functional need for a child to escape. Many students will avoid work because they:
a) are worried they can't do it well
b) don't understand it
c) don't like sitting still
d) think there's something better (more fun or exciting) they could be doing at that time
e) don't have all their physical needs met (food, toileting, heat)
What should I do?
- The more of these concerns you can address and exclude before you get started, the better. Making sure the environment is appropriate, they have had a chance to run around, are fed and have been to the toilet before starting is good.
- Checking for understanding at the start helps (Can you tell me what you need to do? Do you have everything you need? Do we need to ask the teacher about this?)
- Teachers set learning intentions and success criteria to outline the expectations for learning that day. By doing this, we encourage students to focus on what is important and to feel a sense of optimism that they can achieve this. Focus on this and don't make the task bigger.
An example of this is for a writing task. The teacher may wish to teach students how to organise information under sub-headings. The student is expected to focus on this. If competing focuses such as spelling new words correctly, using correct bullet point techniques, or using new connective words are introduced, students lose confidence and motivation. Children have 13 years of school education and 7 years at RNPS - education is most definitely a marathon, not a sprint. We don't teach everything in one lesson.
- Let them know you know what they're doing. Be empathetic but not a pushover.
- Make students accountable: again, agree a time for when you will check back in to see how they're going and tell them how much you expect them to have done. Place a physical marker to show how much work you want to see when you return.
What should I avoid?
- Don't suspend your common sense. As I always said to my students, 'If you really do need to go to the toilet every 10 minutes, you don't need help with your maths, you need to see a doctor.'
- Don't do your child's work for them.
- Don't get hung up on things you think a teacher would look for (e.g. spelling and full stops) if that's not the focus of the lesson. Big, broad tasks or surprise criticisms are overwhelming and lead to avoidance and reluctance.
- Again, get children to take ownership of poor performance. Stop the task after a reasonable time, submit the work and have the child explain why it's unfinished.
- Don't use time spent on a task as the measure of success. Many children can waste an hour without breaking a sweat. Look at the success criteria and let them know they are finished when they meet that (to a good standard). For some children this will motivate them to get started and work quicker.